The Why Store headlines second installment of Henry County Concert Series. 

The Why Store headlines second installment of Henry County Concert Series. 

 By: Kevin Vickery 

On Friday, July 19th The Arts Park Pavilion was the place to be in New Castle when Indiana’s own, The Why Store took the stage as part of The Henry County Concert Series. The band was primed and the weather conditions were perfect to give fans an excellent free concert. 

The band who formed in the late 80’s, taking their name from an actual shop in Muncie, IN called, “The Why Store” has recently reunited after a long hiatus to record their newest CD, “Mothership” and has been touring around Indiana and the surrounding states in support of the album.

Throughout the 1990’s, The Why Store was very popular and successful, recording three albums including their first major label effort through MCA Records. That self titled LP charted in the top 20 and has sold over 200,000 copies. The single, “Lack of Water” was a major national radio hit, they performed “Surround Me” on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and saw their video for “Father” receive regular rotation on MTV2 and VH1.

Their show at The Arts Park Pavilion treated the crowd to all those popular past tunes as well as “Happy Place” with its big, sing-along chorus in addition to some new material from their newest recording, “Mothership” like, “Left it All Behind”, “Really Bad Things”, and “Hey Mrs. Cleary”.

Embarrassingly, this was my first time seeing The Why Store perform live and I was happy that I finally had the opportunity to do so. Original drummer Charlie Bushor and I played a few shows together back in the day and even though neither of us could completely remember exactly when, where, or with whom that occurred, It was great to catch up with him and ask a few questions.

On the new, “Mothership” album, Charlie says, “Everyone seems to like it and even though there’s some stuff on it that’s a little bit of a departure, like having a saxophone on a Why Store record, once you get used to it, it’s really cool, and Chris especially has some great performances on the record.”

Charlie, who is one of the most solid drummers I’ve ever known told me that he’s “having the time of his life”, and added, to past fans of The Why Store, “If you’ve been  away for a while, come back.  The music’s fresh and the band’s playing great and super tight.”  On their loyal fan base that he considers to be like family, he also said, “We come for the music and stay for the people.”

Frontman, Chris Schaffer who also lead the band, Schaffer Street during the years The Why Store was out of commission has a strong, deep and growling voice which sounds to me a bit like Neil Diamond at times. (I hope Chris isn’t offended by that. I totally dig Neil’s style). Chris has written over 150 original songs and is known for his signature sound of nearly always strumming on his Takamine 12 string guitar.

As a songwriter myself, I was curious about his thoughts on performing the new material for a live audience and if he thought the crowd at The Arts Park Pavilion would enjoy it.  Chris said, “I love playing my songs that I have written.  I am blessed to do so and the response to this band is magical.  The songs on “Mothership” were played live before recording the record, and the response was almost better than when we played the older hits during our shows.  So it was very inspiring!  I love all of these songs, but “Afterlife” has a special place in my heart.”

He added, “It’s a blessing to play my songs anywhere, and we are sounding better than ever.  Can’t wait to rock New Castle, and beyond.”

The Why Store’s current line up also includes guitarist, Troy Seele and bassist, Dan Hunt who have both worked with Chris for decades and along with Charlie on drums, they collectively do a fantastic job of bringing Chris’s timeless songs to life.

The show at the Arts Park Pavilion also featured New Castle’s own, Bash Crider & Rose City Salvage whose acoustic set sounded good and fit the bill nicely to get the crowd ready for The Why Store.

The Henry County Concert Series continues featuring Henry Lee Summer with Dave Ellison on August 16th, and Cornfield Mafia with Jasper Wright & John Thompson on September 20th. All shows are at the Arts Park Pavilion with a 6:30 PM show time.

As I’ve said before, it takes a great deal of work and planning to bring a series of events like this to fruition and part of what makes that possible are the corporate sponsors.  The Henry County Concert Series thanks Modern Fold, Henry County Community Foundation, Edward Jones, New Castle – Henry County Chamber of Commerce, and Art Association of Henry County for their support.

For more information about The Why Store,  find them on social media or their official website at thewhystoreband.com

To keep up with Bash Crider & Rose City Salvage visit their Facebook page.

To find out about events at The Henry County Arts Park Pavilion visit the Art Association of Henry County’s website at henrycountyarts.org